Rumors

According to a mage apprentice's mindset, using wood-spirit magic to nurture crops was as ridiculous as using wine to rear pigs.

This was a waste of resources and an insult to magic!

"Do any of you have anything to say?"

Yu Sheng'an's gaze was swept across the mage apprentices who were currently in a heated discussion.

The mage apprentices looked at one another, but nobody dared to be the one to question him. He wondered, Is it the Ringelmann effect, or do they know what's good for them?

"Very good!"

Yu Sheng'an nodded with satisfaction and he snapped his fingers. A huge illusory scroll appeared and a bunch of numbers were written on it.

"I've set up a group chat and this is the group chat's number. Add yourselves to it, and I suggest that you send any ideas and suggestions to me via private messaging. Extra points will be given if proposals are well-written. There will also be a reward for this."

Then, Yu Sheng'an settled other minor issues before adjourning the meeting.

Frankly speaking, he really didn't know much in regards to crop cultivation.

However, he was still someone who had undergone nine years of compulsory education so he knew all the concepts about "dominant gene," "recessive gene," "directed cultivation," "mutation" and "mutagenesis."

Armed with those concepts, to a certain extent, he was way ahead in that world's biology for hundreds or even thousands of years.

The biology in that world relied too much on magic.

They basically used magic to change and distort plant growth.

Yu Sheng'an believed that with his knowledge, the conditions to implement it, almost 1% of the wood-spirit mages in the Queville Empire and magic, he could definitely come up with something.

By then, even a mere increase of crop yields by 10% would be a drastic improvement if seen from the scope of the whole empire.

This was going to fill more stomachs, increase the population and release more labor force!

All of this was going to be turned directly into his power!

Actually, he had been looking up for relevant information in the two weeks that the Empire used to disseminate the Internet Divine Skill, doing field surveys to check the types of soil found throughout the Empire. He already had preliminary ideas in mind.

However, before deciding on the experiment, he still wanted feedback from the professionals. After all, he would have a much clearer idea if he listened to every opinion.

Yu Sheng'an walked slowly to the back of the great hall after the meeting ended.

Very few people knew that an underground space had been expanded to the size of a football field, right underneath the great hall of that "Forest of Magic" in the past two weeks.

That wasn't an easy feat in the Empire's capital city.

It was difficult to expand a basement; the underground space of the Empire was always monitored by the Magic Tower. Digging without permission would trigger the Tower's defense and those involved would be crushed to death.

He walked down the spiral staircase to the basement. The huge underground space didn't have any decoration and it had been opened up as a perfect squarish space.

The surrounding walls, ceilings and floors were all condensed into crystals using earth-based magic. They looked very clean and beautiful.

Up on the ceiling, equally spread out, neatly arranged and fixed "Inch of Light" castings lit up the entire space.

One could see countless different sized glass boxes placed in the basement.

The interior of those boxes had been etched with complex magical engravings which manipulated gravity. Once activated, they could simulate a microgravity space.

That would be Yu Sheng'an's simulated microgravity environment which he would use to mutagenesize the crops and select the most viable.

Power makes the world go round!

Yu Sheng'an looked at this high specs laboratory and felt expectant.

He was so freaking wise to choose the Queville Empire as a starting point!

…

"Has Lord Dandell lost his mind? Transferring all the wood-spirit mage apprentices to grow crops? T-T-This is simply ridiculous!!!"

One of the members of the "Willis Magic Plantation Federation," Mage Instructor March, banged on the table furiously.

They had all kinds of magical plants in their fields; almost all of them needed plenty of wood-spirit magic to be maintained.

Although they had employed some mages who were well versed in wood-spirit magic, they weren't enough to maintain their huge plantations.

They had been used to count on mage apprentices as temporary workers or even as free labor.

But then, those people had been transferred away which crippled at least 20% of their plantations. Of course they would be angry.

"This is not only ridiculous, it is pure stupidity! Even if they are successful, how are those illiterate farmers going to plant them?"

A few big plantation owners said sarcastically in anger, "Haha. Do they really believe that all the citizens of the Empire can become mages once the Internet Divine Skill is spread throughout?"

"Who is this Ajaf? Why does Lord Dandell favor him so much?"

"I don't know. He seems to have suddenly popped up. I've already observed him, the magic fluctuation in his body is very weak. I think he's either a mage instructor or a mage apprentice, but I feel it's more likely the former. Maybe he's a mage recruited by Lord Dandell from another country."

"I don't care who he is! He cannot take all the wood-spirit mage apprentices. Everyone, shall we go and see Lord Dandell together?"

"My thoughts exactly!"

"This is also the responsibility of the 'Willis Magic Plantation Federation' that we have set up!"

After a brief discussion, the plantation owners decided to gang up on Dandell to pressure him.

At the same time, Ajaf's name caused furor in Felix because of that unprecedented large-scale collaborative magic experiment!

"Does it need to be done on such a big scale, just to cultivate crops? Shouldn't it be enough with just a few mage apprentices?"

"Using magic to grow crops? How did he ever come up with this!?"

"Studying crops? How much can they earn from it?"

"Who is this Ajaf? Never heard of him."

"Me neither. I went to check the list of registered mages on the Empire's official website. He's not on it."

"I heard gossip that he's a mage Lord Dandell recruited from abroad!"

"No wonder he's so well-treated. This is just for show!"

"Nonsense. I heard he is Lord Dandell's… bastard?"

"Argh—? For real?"

Under the Internet's concealment and spreading ability, the public opinion swept through Felix like a storm!

From the mage instructors to the mage apprentices, the gossiping fires burned fiercely!

Just by looking at everyone's views and attitudes, almost all of them were full of contempt and ridicule.

Setting aside the step down that using magic to study crops implied, it was also not worth it when seen from an interests' standpoint!

There were basically only two types of magical plants that were cultivated with wood-spirit magic.

The first type, using wood-spirit magic to forcely interfere, distort and amplify certain features of the plant to achieve their goals.

That method needed human interference. Even if they only needed to interfere with the seeds, the farmers would never be able to afford the price.

The second type, directly cultivating new varieties.

That meant getting into the deities' domains, who would be able to study it?

Even if they managed to make one, it would be a whole new plant. The farmers would only buy them once and get their own seeds for future crops. Could that cover all the research costs?

Of course not!

What? Selling at a high price?

Could those peasants afford it?

Frankly speaking, anybody with a little basic magical knowledge knew about this. It wasn't possible that Lord Dandell didn't, right?

Since he knew about it, why did he still approve of this experimental project?

Moreso, even transferring all the Felix wood-based mage apprentices to take part in this experiment?

Nobody was able to figure this out, but their imaginations ran wild.

Within a short time, Ajaf's identity and background had numerous versions.

From a mysterious foreign mage to the magical deity's bastard, and then a member of the royal family. Everyone's imagination and gossip-creating abilities were thoroughly activated by the Internet.

Just as the rumors were spreading furiously, Dorothy tentatively knocked on the door of the Forest of Magic.